


The Good Place

by wellthatjusthappend



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Age Difference, Alternate Universe - Afterlife, Depression, Dick bulks hard, Jason is more well read than anyone, M/M, More tags to be added, Self Loathing, So so so much angst, Upsetting themes, eventually spoilers for the good place, every chapter switches pov, moral crisis, soulmates but not, suggested DickDami, the good place AU, which is why the first several are short
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-11
Updated: 2018-11-11
Packaged: 2019-08-21 20:43:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16583831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wellthatjusthappend/pseuds/wellthatjusthappend
Summary: He wasn’t sure why he was there.“Welcome back to the afterlife, you are in the Good Place.”But he was certain it was some kind of mistake.





	1. Roy

**Author's Note:**

> I binged The Good Place the other day and immediately wanted to write an AU with Roy, Jason, and Dick. There is going to be a fair bit of angst in this one, but if you know much about the show/these characters, then that's probably a given. 
> 
> I'll try to add all warnings in the tags as they come, but I know this won't be everyone's cup of tea.

Roy opens his eyes and finds himself in a waiting room.

 _‘Welcome! Everything is fine.’_ The wall reads.

Roy immediately begins to sweat. Why was he there? Was this some sort of rehab center? Did he fuck up?

“Roy Harper?” a silvery old man smiles gently at him from the door, “Why don’t you come on in?”

Fuckfuckfuckfuck-!

“Go ahead and sit down,” the man gestured to the seat in front of the desk. Cautiously Roy sat down. “Now, you’ve probably already realized why you’re here.”

“Erm…”

“What’s the last thing you remember?” the man says kindly.

He remembered getting a call for a Titan’s mission. He remembered being surprised to see Dick leading the briefing. He remembered…

_Fire and smoke everywhere. Pain so intense he almost felt numb with it._

_“Roy! You fucker, don’t you dare-“ Jason snarled above him, trying to dig him out of the collapsing building. Why was he there? Oh yeah, he’d called him when none of the Titan’s had picked up._

_The beams above them creaked dangerously._

_“Jaybird…” Roy tried to croak in warning. There was the sound of breaking wood and Jason had looked up-_

“To put it simply, Roy, you died back there,” the man informed him bluntly.

“Jason- the others- are they alright?” Roy asked leaning forward, his chest tight and his mind reeling.

“The mission was failure I am afraid. There were several casualties. You may meet some of them here.” The man said offhandly, “But you don’t need to worry about any of that anymore. You were a hero in life and now you are in the Good Place.”

“I- like heaven?” Roy asked distractedly. He’d died. He’d died. He was dead.

“Close enough,” the man said with a laugh, “Come now, let’s get you settled in so you can meet the other residents.”

“The other residents?” Roy was having a bit of trouble coming to terms with all of this.

“The other people in this neighborhood that have gotten to the Good Place,” the man explained, “You see, each action that you took in life had a negative and a positive effect attached to a different value. Those values add up and those with the very highest values go to the Good Place. Everyone else goes to the Bad Place.”

“I’m guessing that’s Hell.”

“Perhaps if you mean they now live in a place that was tailor-made to torture them, then yes. You almost didn’t make it to the Good Place I’m afraid, but your last attempt to save your friend instead of yourself pushes you _just_ over the threshold,” the man said, as if that was something funny.

Just over the threshold? Pretty bad, but sort of good enough to scrape by? That sounded like his life in a nutshell. Figures that the afterlife would be the same- wait. If he was dead, did that mean-?

“My daughter,” Roy said urgently leaning forward, “She’s dead too. I’m in the Good Place, so does that mean I can see her now?”

The man’s face fell sadly.

“No, what-? Please, you’ve got to let me see her-“ Roy begged.

“I’m afraid children just don’t live long enough to accumulate enough points to make it to the Good Place-“

“No! That’s not- She was just a little girl, how can she not be in the Good Place?” Roy was already crying, but he didn’t care.

“Well, children don’t really do anything bad enough to get tortured either,” the man shifted uncomfortably, “they just…”

Roy wasn’t listening anymore, he just buried his face in his hands. He’d wanted to die too when he found out his little girl hadn’t made it way back then. He’d wanted to die so that he could see her again. And now he had died and he found out that he’d never- _never_ -

Another sob broke through.

“Perhaps… perhaps it would be best if we saved the tour and orientation for later,” the man said clearing his throat, “Janette?”

“Hello,” Roy didn’t even care that a woman had appeared out of nowhere. Nothing mattered anymore.

“Please take Roy to his new home and… make sure he doesn’t upset the other guests.” The last part was said quietly enough that Roy didn’t think he was supposed to hear.

Figures that even in death he was fucking things up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote the first 3 chapters all as one chapter, but I don't like switching POV in the middle of a chapter as much so that's why these first couple are short. 
> 
> Also, the thing with there really being no way for children to ever make it into the Good Place with this sort of point system was one of the first glaring flaws/red flags I noticed. It works perfectly for poor Roy though.


	2. Jason

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jason doesn't exactly remember being dead before, but that doesn't mean his soul doesn't recognize the feeling.

“Jason, would you like to come in?” a tall smiling white man beckoned to him from the doorway of whatever waiting room he was in.

“No,” said Jason flatly and hightailed it out before the other could do more than splutter in surprise.

Jason might not remember anything about this place, but he knew he was dead. Again.

He picked his way through the quaint little pristine neighborhood with a growing sense of disgust. What kind of hell was this? Metropolis for the rural and unimaginative? The city kid in Jason was immediately uncomfortable.

Not to far away, there was a gathering of people in lawn chairs preparing to watch a recording of some sort. Jason almost turned away from it, but a familiar figure caught his eye and stopped him dead in his tracks. A rush of irrational anger filled him and he snuck up behind the person conveniently sitting at the very back of the crowd.

“What the fuck are _you_ doing here?” Jason asked kicking his chair.

“Jason?” Dick’s blue eyes widened in shock before a look of understanding and grief crossed his face, “I heard you were on the field that day trying to get Roy out… I guess you didn’t make it either?”

“Never mind that,” Jason hissed, crouching down so he wasn’t immediately visible to the rest of the crowd, “We can’t both be dead. You’re supposed- you’re not the one that’s supposed to-“

 _Fuck,_ Jason didn’t know what he was trying to even say so he settled on glaring at the other. Dick, the shitface, just gave him a tired smile.

“I’ve never been infallible, little brother.” Dick sighed.

“Shut up,” Jason glared, “You never wanted to be my brother in life, don’t try to be in death.”

“I-“ Dick looked guilty.

“I said shut up,” Jason snapped.

“I don’t suppose this is a new super villain trick?” Dick said ruefully, thankfully letting the matter drop.

“No. I- we’re dead. At least I am.” Jason looked away.

“Do you remember-“

“No,” Jason cut him off, “I don’t remember this place. But I know what dying feels like… I know what being dead feels like.”

“I’m sorry…” Jason couldn’t look at Dick when he sounded like that. He’d punch him in the face.

“Geez… we’re really both dead. Oh god, Bruce is going to- I don’t even know, but it won’t be good.” Dick sounded distressed.

 _Probably won’t even notice I’m gone with you being dead,_ Jason thought bitterly. It wasn’t like Jason and Bruce had parted on the best of terms the last time they saw each other. The memory sat bitter in the back of his throat. He’d never force Bruce to take responsibility for his mistakes now. He’d never- the last time they would have ever saw each other was Bruce throwing Jason out of his family and his city for good.

“Don’t think about it,” Jason said gruffly, as much to himself as to Dick “There’s nothing we can do about it now.”

 _“Welcome to the afterlife orientation! Don’t worry, you’re in the Good Place…”_ the recording started up.

“Well, at least we both got into heaven together,” Dick said.

Jason grunted noncommittally back. He was a little confused about that to be honest. He never expected to end up anywhere with the Golden Child after death. Especially considering some of the things he’d done when he first came back to life.

_“All of your actions for your entire life have had a positive or negative effect on the world. Those choices have added up to a score. Those who made it above a certain score came to the Good Place. Everyone else is in the Bad Place. But you don’t need to worry about them. You all made wonderful choices in life and now it’s time to enjoy the benefits for eternity.”_

“Have these people never read an ethics book in their life?” Jason made a disgusted noise.

“I’m sure these people know what they’re doing. This is the Good Place after all,” Dick said, although he looked a little uncertain.

“There’s no way a system like this could work,” Jason insisted, “Actions would have to all be not just comparable, but also have the ability to cancel each other out. Does inventing the cure for an illness that saves thousands of people somehow make it ok to smack around your wife because the point values will still just-? No, it doesn’t work like that. It can’t. This is bullshit.”

“Jason-“ Dick started.

“I’m out,” Jason stood to leave, “the afterlife is a revolving door for heroes anyway, so I just have to kill time until Bruce finds away to bring you back and then hitch a ride.”

“Where are you going?” Dick asked, voice still hushed trying not to disturb more people watching the screening. He was polite that way.

“If I’m dead, then Roy is definitely dead too. He’s around here somewhere and I’m going to go find him,” Jason shrugged, walking away.

Dick called to him one more time, but predictably didn’t run after him.

There was technically no guarantee that Roy would also have made it to the Good Place- No, if this world was really governed by choices then Roy would be there too. He and Jason were… they were the same. No, Roy was actually probably even better than him.

He’d be there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jason is probably more well read on ethical subjects than any of them. Or at least pretty familiar with them. But Jason grew up with the expectation that life was going to be unfair and messed up, he's not all that surprised that the afterlife is as well.


	3. Dick

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Roy might not care who Michael is, but Dick probably made a point to remember his name. 
> 
> Relent for this chapter, the Batfams ages are/were:  
>  -Dick, 27  
>  -Jason, 21  
>  -Tim, 19  
>  -Damian, 13
> 
> In cannon, their ages are all over the place and are not consistent at all. I pick and choose which reality I'm going to pay attention to per story, so for this one: Dick was 18 when Jason was Robin, and Jason died at 15 when Tim was 13. Damian joined them when he was 10 and Tim was 16, so that means that now that Damian is 13, their ages would be as above for this story.

“My parents, are they here?” Dick went up and asked after the orientation.

“Ah, Richard, my boy,” the silvery man- Micheal, Dick reminded himself- smiled at him, “You should really focus a little bit more on yourself. You are, after all, in paradise.”

“I know, I’m still trying to wrap my head around that,” Dick said with what he hoped was a charming smile, “But you see, my parents were killed when I was young and I have been dreaming of some day getting to see them again since then.”

“Well, I can take a look,” shrugged Michael pulling up a fancy hologram, “Grayson, Grayson… Ah, looks like they aren’t in this neighborhood. They might be in another one though. Who were they in life?”

“Circus performers. They were both good people, so they’re probably in one of these neighborhoods,” Dick said, trying to peer around his shoulder.

“Oh, hmm,” Michael paused, looking troubled.

“What?”

“Well, the thing is that merely not doing bad things won’t get you to the Good Place. You have to actively be making good choices that make a positive difference in the world. And even then, only the highest scores make it to the Good Place. Like you.” Michael looked slightly uncomfortable, but still smiled at Dick encouragingly.

“That's…” _messed up_ , said the voice in his head that sounded a lot like Jason. Dick mentally shook it off. It was just because Jason had been grumbling to him earlier. This was paradise. These people knew what they were doing. It was their job to be fair and choose what was best for people after death.

“I can keep looking, if you’d like?” Michael offered gently.

“Yes, please,” Dick said politely. He felt troubled though.

“In the meantime, let me take you to your new home,” the other said, gesturing down the path.

“That would be wonderful, thank you,” Dick smiled a little more naturally. It had been a long day (afterlife?) already and he was mentally exhausted from the constant emotional rollercoaster.

Dick was led surprisingly quite far away from the rest of the village into a wide open fields of cattails. In the distance, he saw a lone little house.

“Is that-?” Dick asked uncertainly.

“Yes, we thought it would be good for you to have some peace and solitude after so many years in combat. Think of this as you little retreat away from the hardships of the world.” The Michael winked at him.

He had a point. Maybe this was what Dick needed. No, this had to be what Dick needed; This was paradise after all.

The house was _little_. The ceiling were low and the furniture was tightly packed together. But it was beautifully decorated and Dick found himself charmed. It wouldn’t really fit another person very comfortably, but since it was just Dick there it should work just fine. It was even fully stocked so that Dick wouldn’t need to worry about cooking or going into town.

“Now before I leave you to your much deserved rest, I want to discuss the subject of soulmates with you,” Michael said.

“Soulmates?” Dick parroted, blinking rapidly.

“Everyone has one,” Michael informed him waving his hand vaguely, “Yours, I am afraid, hasn’t died yet.”

“Oh, that’s fine. That’s good, I’d rather they lived for as long as possible,” Dick said hurriedly. He was aware that he’d died rather young, “Who was- is it?”

His thoughts drifted hopefully towards Barbara or Kori…

“Damian Wayne,” said Michael happily.

Everything in Dick went very still.

“What- No, that can’t be right,” Dick said sharply.

“Oh yes, surly you sensed it when you were together? How well you two clicked?” Michael said encouragingly.

“No, no, Damian is so young, that’s not- I’m more than twice his age,” Dick protested.

“Oh, don’t worry, I’m sure you would have waited for him to be ready before acting on anything. You are, after all, a Good Person. And really, that age gap is nothing in the face of eternity,” Michael assured him.

It didn’t feel like nothing. It felt really really significant, and Dick felt a little queasy.

“The two of you already wanted each other, even if sadly you never got to be together the way you were meant to while you were alive,” Michael said sadly.

“No- I swear, I’ve never thought of him like that-“ Dick said a little frantically.

“But you would have, eventually; He is your soulmate. The universe doesn’t make mistakes about this sort of thing,” Michael said firmly.

Dick closed his eyes.

“I think I…” _am going to be sick_ , “need to be alone for a bit.”

“Of course!” Michael clapped him on the back, “And don’t worry if things don’t settle in right away: the adjustment period can take some time. If you need anything, just call Janet.”

“Thanks…” murmured Dick, managing a small wave. The moment Michael had left, Dick was sinking down into one of the chairs and putting his head in his hands.

Damian. His soulmate. It just _couldn’t_ be.

He was too young. Even if Damian was legal, that age gap- 14 years was not nothing, dammit. And even if it was, Damian was practically Dick’s little brother. Fuck- there had been times in Bruce’s absence that Dick had ended up practically raising him at times. Dick would have been happy to never have realized he harbored paternal feelings about Damian, but there they were. And now he was supposed to have somehow embarked on a romantic relationship with Damian in a few more years?

No. No way.

Even trying to think about it made Dick want to rip out his brain. Never. Nevernevernever. But Michael had said Damian had already wanted him. Which, if Damian had developed a kiddie crush, that was perfectly normal, but Michael had said- Dick found himself wracking his brain desperately trying to make sure he’d never encouraged- never subconsciously _groomed_ \- he wouldn’t. He just wouldn’t. It was Dick’s job to _protect_ Damian from people like that.

Maybe the system had gotten them mixed up with a Dick and Damian from another universe. That could happen, right?

Dick stood and tried to pace, but the tight corners of the house made that just about impossible. He went outside, but other than the rocky dirt road, the tall cattails made quick movement just about impossible. There was nothing tall to climb, either. Even the house was fairly short and had a tin roof that would get painfully hot if Dick tried to hang out there during the day.

He really wanted to talk to someone about this soulmate business, but he didn’t feel like Michael was going to be any help: he had too much confidence in the system. He had no idea where Jason was, or if Roy was truly there too, and the rest of the residents were strangers. Dick made friends fast, but he was pretty cut off from people out in the fields.

He needed someone to talk him down from this emotional cliff he’d freaked himself onto where he felt like some sort of child predator waiting to happen. He wasn’t, some part of him knew that, but he was freaked and needed someone else to tell him that.

There was no one. The empty silence pressed in from all sides and dick shivered despite the pleasant warmth of the air.

Maybe he was over thinking things. Damian was still alive and Dick was dead after all. Dick needed to calm down. It was better that there was no one to witness his meltdown on his first day in paradise.

It was better that he was alone.

Dick went back inside his new little house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dick is not someone you leave alone for an existential crisis. 
> 
> Ok, now they've all had their intro to the Good Place, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this one!


End file.
